Accrington Railways - Robert Kenyon

regarding the operation of railways were still being formulated to give a safer environment for both passengers and employees. Excursions were run from Accrington Station often using open carriages during the very early days. A trestle table was set up outside the main building, and every passenger’s name was recorded and a counterfoil issued for use as a ticket. Outside the platform a hand bell was rung by a station porter, as a call to passengers to get a move on and board the train. ( The population of Accrington in April, 1852, was put at 10,300 souls. ) On Christmas Day, 1852, very high winds caused extensive damage to the railway station, the adjacent engine sheds and ancillary infrastructure. One Sunday morning the 10:30 train to Leeds via Colne was standing at the platform when it was struck by a rake of empty passenger carriages. They were part of a shunt which was on the bottom end of the gradient known as Baxenden Bank, when they were detached to allow them to free-wheel into a vacant siding. Unfortunately the ‘Points-man’ had not thrown the points to accomplish this manoeuvre safely, so the carriages gaining speed collided with the crowded stock. The violent shock of the impact caused injuries to passengers in the rear coaches of the Leeds train, although none proved serious. In May, 1860, an advertisement was issued for tenders to construct a new booking hall at Accrington’s station, and also to put a roof over the platform. In 1863 the goods warehouse was enlarged. ACCRINGTON’S FIRST ENGINE SHED The first engine shed in Accrington was built by the East Lancashire Railway at a cost of £1,340. It was opened on July 1 st , 1848, and was situated at the centre of the triangle of lines formed by the three junctions of the two running lines and the avoiding curve. It was open at both ends and had two roads which ran through the shed to buffer beams short of the Blackburn – Burnley lines. There were three extra sidings to the west of the shed, the closest of which ran onto a turntable capable of turning both a locomotive and tender. The coaling point was on the opposite side of the shed to the turntable, on a separate spur from the Bury line which was nearest to the station platform. This shed had an initial allocation of twelve locomotives only half of which could be accommodated within the structure of the shed. Complaints from the foreman of the cramped and exposed the conditions in which the fitters had to work, had gone on for a number of years. CHURCH RAILWAY STATION It has been suggested that the very first railway station in Church was situated off Blackburn Road just east of the bridge which carries the line over the main Blackburn Road at Twenty-steps at what became Blythe’s Sidings. ( Blythe’s Sidings did have a line adjacent to a stone platform, and this was where the electric cars for the town’s tramway were unloaded, having been dispatched from the Brush Works in Loughborough to be carted to the Ellison Street Tramsheds. The site is currently a caravan park .) This was on the westerly side of the stone viaduct which takes the line over the Coach Road and Tinker Brook, whereas the station we know is now to the other side of this viaduct. Opened on June 19 th , 1848, it was a structure built of timber, which it is reported, was replaced by a more permanent brick built structure in 1853, and included a goods warehouse and yard. In order to build this station a public house was demolished on what was the then Worth Lane. This public house was replaced by the Railway Hotel which stood adjacent to the lines on Market Street opposite to the main station buildings on the block below Sadler Street. ( This hostelry survived into the late 1960s .) In the early 1850s a row of houses called Railway Terrace, ( probably later Railway Street and now demolished ), was built close to the Goods Yard, in order to house the families of the railway’s employees During 1867 the Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Company placed advertisements for the rebuilding of Church Railway Station, this time in stone. In 1895 further improvements were being made following re-occurring complaints about the low height of the platforms, which were the cause of several accidents, one serious, to passengers stepping out from the carriages. These improvements also included a new subway and bridge, which took about a year to complete. As these came towards completion, from July 1 st , the L & Y renamed the station Church & Oswaldtwistle, even though the boundary between the two ran above the station through South Shore Street and down Foxhill Bank Brow. Platform access was by steps and a covered subway for trains towards Accrington, and through a booking office at street level for trains heading west. The Booking Hall was at the same level as the small yard, and the upper storey at

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